999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors Part #7

Part 7: 1st class cabin 2

So today we're clearing out the second half of the 1st class cabin. That means we get to hang out with Seven. I wonder what's behind that door at the back.

No point to going back there. All that's out there are a locked numbered door and...

A dead body... Or what's left of it...

...Yeah...

Well, that's an awful grim way to start things. Let's see what else there is in here.

This chair looks good.

Somebody spent a lot of time carving the legs of this chair.

Mind your own business!

Man, rude.

If we examine the same chair again, because why not, we don't get much...

(A chair with intricately carved legs.)

(A chair with intricately carved legs...)

...So, instead, let's look at that other chair.

Yeah, this one.

That chair looks nice. Mind if I take a load off?

...

I swear all the random stuff you can examine doesn't just lead to Junpei making fun of the guy for his size!

Let's prove that point by looking at something over here instead. That couch looks like a good place to start.

This couch looks just big enough for 3 people.

Looks perfect for me.

...What?

The couch looks a lot more elegant...

Hey! There's something you aren't sayin'!

Uh... Never mind.

Oh, right, before we look at anything else you're probably wondering about that piece of paper on the table. There's a few possible conversations for that depending on both what angle you look at it and your inventory. By cleaning out half the room before, we've missed the chance to get a proper look at some of it. So we'll examine it in detail later.

For now, let's look at the fireplace instead. I think I see something in it.

Aren't a lot of people these days with real fireplaces and real fires.

If we examine it again, we get a "it's a fireplace" generic line. Twice. Do it again afterwards though?

Hey Junpei, what's this?

Right on!

Turns out Junpei has some class and intelligence.

So, let's examine a fire and see what else we get out of it.

Huh? There's something in the back...

(Let's see if I can reach it. Just a little--)

You aren't real smart, are you? C'mon, course it's gonna be hot. It's a fire. Even a monkey knows it shouldn't stick its hand in a fire.

Not much we can do over there, even though we need something out of it. Let's take a look at what's over here, instead.

Idiot. It's just a vase on a table. Well, I guess maybe it does look a little bit like an anemic Martian...

Right. So, that vase?

I get it. You're gonna use this vase, right? That's pretty clever, Junpei.

What? What are you talking about?

Oh man... You don't get it? Just grab that vase and take a look around. You'll figure it out soon enough.

Okay, well, at least we obviously know what we're doing here. Seven seems to know too, which is nice. Shame he didn't, y'know, actually do anything while we were helping Snake though.

But if we're gonna fill it with water then there's only one possible source. I'd really, really rather not use that though, so let's try and find another one.

The door on the left here is as good a place to look as any.

This looks awful familiar. You don't think Zero would do the exact same thing here as was in the bedroom, do you?

Wow, that is... really, really lazy. There's plenty of places to stash this, so it's hidden in the exact same spot as a different one. Figures.

It has a couple of G notes written on it.

Huh. I wonder what that means?

It probably means it's going to be helpful later, maybe. Let's go see what Snake thi- ooh a light switch.

Hey Junpei, you're a Taurus right?

What? Why?

Well, you're so well-organized. Most people wouldn't bother to search something that didn't seem to mean much.

Let's keep looking at it!

Hey, Junpei, I wrote a little song for you. Take a listen. "The Ballad of the Well-Organized Man."

(it's a gif)

Lets poke it again. Might get something else out of it.

Hey Junpei, I wrote you another verse. Listen.

(it's another gif)

Nothing else here, but we can take a look at that third door in the hallway now. We can only access it from here because.

Well, at least we know where the facilities are should we need to use them now. Speaking of which, maybe there's one of those score plates in the cistern or something.

If we look at it again we just get more generic dialogue but if we keep looking at it...

...

Just a joke there, kid.

Not funny, man...

Incontinence is a problem many older men struggle with, but there's help.

There's only one other thing in here we can even look at.

Nothing that looks suspicious.

Examining it some more gets some pretty standard dialogue as per usual, so let's keep doing so. That usually leads to something interesting, Eventually.

All right, I'm gonna pull off some of this toilet paper!

Hey Junpei... I don't really think you need that much...

...

Well, let's just wipe the slate clean then, shall we?

Now there's no distractions left between us and finishing the puzzle(s) in this room.

...HEY, SNAKE, LOOK AT WHAT WE FOUND!

Over in the kitchen.

I see.

That's... not what we're using it for.

Okay, now we're really done with the distractions.

This is still really fucking gross but... it's gotta be done. Let's fill this vase with nasty water.

Hey Junpei, we just found that blue vase, right? You think maybe we could use it for something?

Of course, we get different dialogue depending on if we have examined the fire(place) already or not. We have...

All right. Shouldn't be too hard to fill this vase up.

...But let's assume we haven't for a moment.

Yeah... If we fill the vase up, then we can toss it.

Huh?

(Not really sure what he's saying... Whatever. Let's just get this vase full of water.)

Either way, we get this:

Only one thing to do now that you got that thing full of water. C'mon, what're you waitin' for?

I dunno. Maybe I was waiting to see what Snake think about it.

Hmm... Not a bad idea. Very well. I would appreciate it if you would put this plan into action post-haste.

Right. Anyway, the fire? Let's look at it without bothering with the vase for the time being.

Right on, buddy! Do it!

Do...what?

Come on, it's not hard to figure out! You seriously...? Throw that shit on there!

Okay, I'll take this out now.

...Take what out?

After we put out this fire, we're gonna grab that thing in the back, right?

Nope, not getting it.

(There's something in the fireplace, behind the fire.)

Oh, the vase! Right. I totally spaced on that since this was pretty fun.

About time, buddy! Let's do it!

Here we go!

Another success! That fire didn't stand a chance.

Well, without the fire in the way we could grab what it was obstructing.

Or we could just examine the fuel.

I guess if you were to just name as many types as possible, you'd eventually get it right.

Let's just grab whatever's sticking out and move on, now.

Don't wanna get burned, so let's pull down the sleeves...

It looks like a blank sheet of music.

No notes on this one? Huh, that's odd.

Hey. Seven, what the hell was that? Are you all right?

Yeah, yeah, I'm fine... I just felt a little dizzy, that's all.

Seven rubbed a couple of fingers across his brow, and then shook his head, as if to clear it.

What the hell's wrong with me?

...

Memory loss?!

Junpei couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. Seven, for his part, seemed unconcerned.

Right, guess I haven't told you, have I. Told the rest of 'em, but that must'a been before you showed up. Well, the long and short of it is that I don't remember Jack from before I woke up here. Didn't realize I hadn't told you.

Woah woah, wait a minute...

You're talking about amnesia, right?

Yeah, I guess so.

Well, why're you an amnesiac? What happened to you?

Oh...yeah, I guess that's true.

Junpei paused for a moment, and stared at Seven.

Are you telling the truth?

Huh?

Well, you look pretty calm for somebody who doesn't remember anything.

If you've really got amnesia, shouldn't you be...like...upset, or confused, or something?

Well, sure, I mean I was pretty confused when I woke up down on D Deck. But that was a while ago. I've had some time to get used to it. After a while, I figured it wasn't worth the trouble of worryin' about it.

Well, people usually don't stay amnesiacs forever. I figure it'll work itself out eventually.

That's... That's it?

That's it.

...

All right, that's enough talkin' for now. Let's get back to work.

Well, that explains why he didn't give any real details about when he ran into Zero. He wasn't being uncooperative; he just couldn't.

Hey, Snake, what do you think about this blank score we found?

This texture... It feels like it's probably ceramic--you know, fired clay, like a plate or a bowl. What color is it?

Well, it's white.

Is there anything written on it?

Yeah, a staff. Like for music. No notes, though. Huh.

Interesting... How strange.

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, lets look at the fireplace one last time and examine the grate.

No, wrong Santa.

...Well, there's really nothing else to mess around with now, so let's head back to the bathroom one last time.

Can't see more than...4 inches or so. I can't see anything down there.

Hmm. Do you think...?

Think what?

Yeah. Good plan.

(All right, where's that thing? A good tug oughta be enough to get it out.)

(...Huh?)

This is really, really gross. Don't touch it with your bare hands, Junpei! Get a towel or something, first.

It's a sheet of music with a couple of D notes on it.

I... can't think of anywhere there'd be any more plates that we haven't checked already. I guess we'd best go see Snake, and see if we're missing any.

It was sitting in the bathtub, under the water.

Really. Underwater, hm...

Well, we're after the piano so let's go look at that.

Oh, and much like with the paper in the other half of the room there's a fair few possible permutations of this dialogue that we'll look at later.

(Just gotta put the ceramic plate on the bottom and then stack the glass plates on top of it. All right... good.) Sweet. Now I can play the music.

Junpei, would you be so kind as to play the piano? I am unable to, you see. I'm sure I needn't tell you, but the keys on this piano are... not what you might expect them to be.

You must listen carefully to determine which keys to strike. Do you understand?

Yeah. All right, let's give this a shot.

[Video: The Piano]

Shit, I'm really bad at identifying a note by sound. Fortunately, you could be playing with the sound off and still solve this puzzle; whenever you press a key, a note will appear on the top screen. If it's not the right one for that point, it'll be red and you'll have to start all over again. If it IS the right one, then it turns green and you carry on. Repeat until you figure out which 4 keys you need, or you just get it right from constantly trying.

...Unfortunately, we're not quite good enough to manage that.

There's no point to just guessing. You need to know which keys correspond to which sound.

I know! Just...lemme do it, all right?

Still can't quite manage it...

Are you quite sure you've got it this time?

...

That is how you should approach this problem. Now, how about another attempt?

This one doesn't quite go so well either... I really don't think we're cut out for this.

(Well, if Snake says that's the way to go...) All right! Let's give this another shot!

Okay. I think after smacking it a bit more we finally managed to do it, and...

[Sound Bite: Piano (2)]

[Video: End]

Junpei! We did it! Looks like it worked! I heard something unlock over by the exit. Let's go!

(Good plan--)

(...Well, I guess he hasn't forgotten that.)

(At least Snake thinks it's funny.)

Hahaha. Yes, I suppose that was the classroom bell, wasn't it.

I don't think I've heard any classroom bell that sounds quite like that.

I don't imagine that's what Zero was thinking of, however.

I really wasn't kidding when I said this little island crops up a lot.

Westminster?

The palace in London that plays host these days to the Houses of Parliament.

Big Ben plays that very collection of notes on the hour.

I'm only pointing this one out because if I don't an (irate) pedant no doubt will: Big Ben is the bell, not the tower. St. Stephen's Tower is the actual tower itself but no one ever calls it that. Because that's dumb and damn near no one would know what you're on about. Everyone knows it as Big Ben so it might as well be the tower as well. Because, y'know, for all intents and purposes it is.

I don't know if it actually makes that sound (I'm guessing it doesn't, but I dunno), since I don't live in London - I hear it's ridiculously expensive, which would make sense. Whilst I'd love to go there eventually I haven't had the time, money or opportunity yet.

London... The capital of England, huh.

At any rate, the door is now unlocked. Let's leave this place, immediately!

There is, of course, one other thing in here. It never came up since we found it though, which is odd.